


even if it takes all night (i'll make it out of here)

by nighting_gale17



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Angst, Fix It Fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, post episode 3x02, tsunami
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 01:49:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20899670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nighting_gale17/pseuds/nighting_gale17
Summary: “Christopher!”





	even if it takes all night (i'll make it out of here)

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [even if it takes all night (i'll make it out of here)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26031958) by [Alex_Kollins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex_Kollins/pseuds/Alex_Kollins), [Lacessa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacessa/pseuds/Lacessa)

> Hope yall enjoy this! may or may not be hoping this is what happens in the next episode. leave a comment and let me know what you thought (and yes to yell at how dare they put buck and christopher through this trauma let my boys be HAPPY)

“Christopher!”

Buck has been screaming his name for hours now. The sun went down long ago, leaving the Santa Monica pier bathed in darkness with only the dull glow of the moon to brighten his way. He was absolutely exhausted. He’d been limping for a while now, his leg screaming with every step he took and it felt like it was getting harder to take in full breaths as he kept going but—he kept going.

“Christopher!” Buck shouted again, his voice cracking on the word and breaking into harsh coughs. He gasped for breath, leaning against a totaled car for a moment before he kept going. “Christopher!”

Lights. There were lights up ahead, on the horizon—a field hospital? It must be. He could see the flashing red and yellow lights even from here and he knew, he knew that if Christopher made it he would head straight for the lights because that was what Buck and Eddie always told him to do if he gets lost. Go to the first responders.

He scrubbed the tears off his cheeks, wincing at the irritation is caused the cuts across his face. He had to keep going. It wasn’t that far. His leg could make it—hopefully. He was wading in water up to his knees in this area, making harder for him to run through the streets. “Christopher!” he continued shouting, just in case—just in case.

When Buck finally made it to the field hospital, the water was wading around his ankles now, and it was a little easier to move around, though it did make his limp a little heavier. “Christopher!” Buck shouted, desperately searching the sea of people and faces huddled together for that one face, that yellow and white striped shirt.

Christopher’s glasses hung around his neck, a constant, terrifying reminder of what he had lost. He was going to give them back. Christopher was going to be fine, he had to be fine, if he wasn’t okay—

“Buck!”

Buck jerked his head around, eyes wide and heart thumping in his chest when he heard that voice. It was faint, but he was _sure_ that he had heard—

“Buck!”

“Christopher?” Buck yelled back, whirling around frantically, desperately trying to find the source of the voice. Luckily, he didn’t have to, because suddenly there was a soaking 40-pounds slamming into the back of his legs.

He grunted, his bad leg buckling underneath him at the impact, and fuck, that hurt, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care because he might be sprawled out on the ground, but Christopher was in his arms—_Christopher was in his arms_—alive and safe and whole. Buck felt his little arms wrap tightly around his neck, just like he did when Buck was saving him from the water, and he was crying into his neck, his entire body shaking with the force of it. “Buck!” he cried.

“Hey, hey, hey, I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” Buck soothed, ignoring the way tears started to drip down his face. He held Chris tightly, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to calm his racing heart. “We’re okay. We’re okay.” He shifted slightly, sitting back and stretching his bad keg out in front of him with a small grimace. Chris just held onto him tighter, his legs locking tightly around Buck’s waist as if he expected to be washed up by yet another wave at any second.

“Hey, buddy, look what I found.” Buck gently pulled Chris away from his chest slightly, lifting the glasses off around his neck and placing them back on Chris’ head.

“You found my glasses!” Chris smiled, his eyes shining happily through his tears.

“Yeah, I did Christopher.” He blinked back more tears. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find you before now, buddy. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“You saved me.” Chris stated, lifting his hand and patting Buck gently on the cheek with a smile. “I’m okay.” his smile turned into a frown. “I lost my crutches.”

Buck let out a wet laugh, hugging Christopher close against his chest again. “We’ll get you new ones, buddy, I promise.”

“Spider-Man ones.” Christopher murmured against his neck.

“Of course.” Buck agreed readily. He would do anything for this kid after the day they had today. He was sure Eddie—

Eddie.

“Oh my god.” Buck breathed out, horror clutching at his stomach. “Eddie. He doesn’t—They don’t know we were here.” He struggled to his feet, biting down roughly on his bottom lip to hold back a cry of pain at putting weight on his bad leg. He held onto Christopher tightly—he wasn’t ever going to let go of this kid again—and started walking towards one of the firetrucks parked nearby.

He kept Christopher propped against his good side, leaning heavily against the side of the truck as he reached in and grabbed the radio off of the seat of the truck. “This is Evan Buckley of Station 118, I need to speak with Captain Nash immediately. This is Evan Buckley of Station 118, I need to speak with Captain Nash immediately.” he repeated the phrase over and over, his voice rasping the longer he spoke from the damage done to his vocal cords. “This is Evan Buckley of Station 118, I need to sp—”

“Evan Buckley of Station 118, we’ve got your Captain here.”

The relief he felt at hearing those words made his legs want to buckle underneath him. He closed his eyes briefly and took a large breath, letting it out slowly. “Thank God.”

“Buck?” Bobby’s vice crackled through the static on the radio. “What’s going on? You’re still not approved for duty. I know you’re worried, but we can handle—”

“Bobby, we were at the pier when the tsunami hit.” Buck interrupted him, tightening his grip around Christopher when he felt the little boy bury his face against his neck at the word.

“You were here when the tsunami hit?” Bobby’s voice tensed and Buck could hear faint shouting on the other end, but he couldn’t decipher it through the radio. “Buck, we had no idea. Was Christopher with you? Are the two of alright?”

“We’re better off than most people.” Like the hundreds of dead bodies he saw floating through the water in the past couple of hours. “We just got to this—this field hospital? I’m not sure where we are. We got pushed inland and then pulled back to the pier.”

There was silence for another minute before Bobby said, “Stay there. Get checked out by someone—both of you—” he added, a knowing edge to his voice. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Buck said, clutching the radio tightly in his hand. He turned and pressed a soft kiss against Christopher’s head, taking a deep breath. “They’re coming for us, buddy. Your daddy’s gonna be here soon.” _And he’s gonna kill me_, he thought, heart clenching at the thought.

He discarded the radio back in the truck and slowly began to hobble back to the large mass of tents and medical staff rushing around. He wasn’t entirely sure where to go in the chaos, but his exhausted demeanor and obvious injuries must have caught the attention of one of the nurses, because he quickly found himself being ushered under one of the canopies and onto a medical cot.

“I’m going to check you over for injuries and then I’ll need to get your names down for records.” The nurse said, a tough looking lady probably around Maddie’s age. She wasted no time in checking Christopher over for injuries, her hands gentle as she bandaged a couple small cuts on his arm and a nasty scrape on his right hand.

“Barely a scratch on you, little guy. You got lucky.” She commented, smiling as she wrapped up Christopher’s hand with gauze and tape.

“No,” Christopher disagreed, using his good hand to pat Buck’s arm and smile up at him. “I had my Buck with me.”

“Your Buck?” the nurse asked, amused as she glanced up at Buck.

“My Buck.” Christopher reaffirmed.

“Well, let’s make sure your Buck is just as in good condition as you are.” The nurse smiled at him and then moved her attention to Buck. “Any major injuries I should know about?”

“I’m on blood thinners.” Buck told her, grimacing slightly. “I suffered a crush injury to my left leg a few months back, and blood clots recently became a problem, so I’ve been taking blood thinners for a couple of weeks now.”

The nurse frowned a little at this and carefully checked him over for injuries, her frown deepening when her hand brushed over his thigh on his left leg. Her gloved hand came back red with blood. “You’ve got a laceration.” she said briskly, quickly pulling a pair of scissors out of her pocket and wasting no time in cutting through the fabric of his pants around the injury. “Are you feeling light headed or dizzy?”

“No.” Buck replied, shaking his head.

The cut was fairly deep, nothing a few stitches couldn’t fix, but Buck was surprised it was there at all. When had that happened? He didn’t even remember feeling something cut him, let alone something that would leave an injury that serious. “I-I didn't even know that was there.”

The nurse sighed, looking tired as she reached around to a cart behind her and began cleaning his wound. “It’s the adrenaline. It’s been happening to almost everyone that I’ve treated so far.”

“Hey, Christopher,” Buck murmured, putting his hand gently on the boy’s cheek to move his attention away from the nasty wound while the nurse worked. “We’re gonna play I Spy again, alright? You go first.”

“I spy with my little eye…”

And so the game went on. Buck powered through the pain of the nurse cleaning and stitching up the leg on his wound, doing his best to keep Christopher distracted until she was finished. He started dozing soon after the nurse had finished up and left with their names, sitting in Buck’s lap with his head resting against his chest. He was probably exhausted, the poor thing, and the thought of what he went through on his own when Buck had lost him made his heart clench painfully in his chest.

Buck was still too keyed up on adrenaline to fall asleep, but he could feel it wearing off enough that some aches and pains he hadn’t been aware he had were starting to rear their heads. He felt a little nauseous from all the ocean water and who knows what else he had swallowed while swimming around and trying to stay alive, but hopefully is was nothing some antibiotics and rest wouldn’t fix.

“You know, buddy,” Buck murmured quietly, his hand absently rubbing Christopher’s back, trying his best to ignore the dull throb of pain in his leg. “I think I might need to use my crutches again after this. Should we get matching ones?”

“You should get Iron Man.” Chris said sleepily after thinking for a moment, his breath warm against Buck’s cold skin.

“Iron Man?” Buck echoed, biting back a smile. “Why’s that?”

“Because you’re a hero.” Christopher said, his tone making it seem like the answer was obvious. Buck tried not to show how startled he was at the statement. “You saved me. You saved all those people.” He reached up and gently patted Buck’s cheeks again. “You did good, kid.”

“Thanks, Christopher.” Buck murmured thickly, his heart in his throat. He was no hero. He lost Christopher in the tsunami, it was only a miracle he survived. He was no hero. “I am so proud of you, you know that?” he pressed a soft kiss against Christopher’s curls and breathed out. “So, so proud. You’ve been so amazing all day. You never cease to amaze me, buddy.”

He thinks he might have started to doze on the cot along with Christopher because he felt himself jerk slightly and his heart rate increase when he heard a familiar voice a distance.

“Christopher? Buck?” His voice was frantic, breathless with worry.

Eddie.

“Eddie?” Buck shouted, his voice breaking into a rough cough.

“Daddy?” Christopher yelled, his voice louder and carrying farther than Buck’s did. Maybe it was parental intuition, but Eddie’s head immediately swiveled over to their direction and Buck saw his eyes widen when he saw him before he started running their direction. “Christopher! Buck!”

The rest of the team were right on his heels as Eddie ran to their side, wasting no time in wrapping his arms around Christopher and Buck. “Dios, I thought I lost you both.” he murmured thickly, pressing his face against Christopher’s curls before he pressed a firm kiss against Buck’s forehead. “Thank you.” He stared at Buck with tears in his eyes. “You saved him, you kept him safe.”

If Buck wasn’t so exhausted he would argue, but that was a conversation they could have for another time. Christopher was safe. He was with Eddie, the rest of the team was here, they were all safe. He rested his forehead against Eddie’s collarbone and let out a deep sigh, grimacing when the sigh turned into a harsh cough that shook his body from the force of it. He swallowed thickly and closed his eyes, letting himself soak in the warmth and safety he felt now that Eddie was here.

“Eddie! Are they okay?” Buck heard Bobby’s voice next to his head, but he didn’t move to look up. Maybe if he just stayed here in this position long enough he could fall asleep and forget that this nightmare ever happened.

“I’m not sure. Definitely exhausted, probably dehydrated. Buck?” Eddie’s voice became concerned. “Buck? Buck, hey, don’t fall asleep. Open your eyes.”

“M’tired.” Buck knew his words were slurring slightly, but he didn’t care.

“I know, I know you’re tired. But just keep them open a little longer, alright?” Buck did so reluctantly, with a massive amount of effort, and was rewarded to see Eddie and Bobby’s worried faces. “Have either of you been checked out yet?”

“Yeah,” he breathed out a long sigh. “Yeah, we’re fine. Just some cuts and bruises—the nurse stitched up a cut on my thigh but that was the worst of it.”

Chimney came up on his other side along with Hen and gently looked him over while Hen looked at Chris. He knew it was just because they were worried, not because they didn’t trust the nurse didn’t do a good job, and the thought made his chest glow with warmth. “Cuts look like they missed your eye.” Chimney commented, moving his hands to gently feel around Buck’s head. “No bumps or lacerations on your head.” His hands continued move down his neck, gently pressing down and peering at him closely. “Does this hurt at all?”

Buck shook his head in response and grimaced slightly as Chimney’s hands worked down his chest, maneuvering Christopher out of the way without releasing him from his grip. “Do your ribs hurt?”

“A little.” Buck admitted, wincing as Chimney’s hands gently pressed down on the right side of his chest. “Something—slammed into me, I think? I’m not sure it was all—a lot, when the wave hit.”

“Doesn’t feel broken. Just bruised, so we need to keep an eye on that.” Chimney moved down towards the cut on his leg and frowned heavily. “Buck, this is a pretty deep cut.” he looked up worriedly. “Your blood thinners—how long ago did you get this cut?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t even know it was there until the nurse found it when she was looking at me. I’m fine.” Buck added, seeing the worried look he exchanged with Bobby. “I need some fluids, but I’ll be okay. I’m not about to pass out or anything.”

“Christopher’s okay. Barely a scratch on the little guy.” Hen smiled at the little boy, chuckling when he grinned back up at her.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Christopher.” Eddie murmured thickly, picking Christopher up off Buck’s lap and hugging him tightly to his chest. “You too, Buck.” he added, looking up at him with gratefulness in his eyes.

Buck looked away, unable to meet his eyes and stared down at where his hands were clasped tightly in his lap. He felt cold and hollow without Christopher’s warm, steady presence with him and he tried to ignore how his heart picked up from anxiety of not having him in his arms. He looked up when Bobby gently rested his hand on his shoulder.

“Let’s get you home, kid.” Bobby said, his eyes soft and concerned.

“No.” Panic raced through him and he glanced quickly at Christopher. “I-I can’t—”

“You can go home with us.” Eddie reassured him. “I was going to suggest it, actually. I don’t think it would be good for you to be alone after losing so much blood.”

Buck nodded, not bothering to hide his relief and hesitantly looked to Chimney. “Can you call Maddie and let her know I’m alright? I would, but—”

“You look like you’re about to pass out at any second.” Chimney finished, giving him a wry grin and nodding. “Sure thing, just try and get some rest, Buckaroo.”

“Thanks,” Buck murmured before swinging his legs over the side of the cot. He attempted to stand up, only to promptly have his legs buckle underneath them, unable to support his weight, and he would’ve hit his head on the ground if Chimney and Bobby hadn’t been so quick to catch him.

“Whoa, there,” Bobby said cautiously, throwing Buck’s arm around his shoulder and carefully wrapping an arm around his waist. “You alright?”

Buck’s head throbbed and he closed his eyes for second, letting out a deep breath until the wave of nausea had passed before he opened his eyes again and nodded. “Yeah. Just—overexerted myself, I think. Might have to use my crutches again for a couple days.” he admitted, lowering his gaze.

“Iron Man ones!” Chris piped in, a sleepy smile crossing his face.

“Yeah, buddy. Iron Man ones.” Buck agreed, a ghost of a smile crossing over his face.

Christopher seemed satisfied with that response, laying his head back down against Eddie’s shoulder as they all started slowly making their way out of the field hospital. It was slow-going for Buck, and Chimney had to step in and help Bobby practically carry him to the firetruck they would take back to the station so they could go home.

Eddie rode with him in the back to the station, sitting at Buck’s side while Christopher curled up half-asleep in both of their laps, his tiny hands clutching Buck’s shirt tightly. Buck leaned his head back against the seat, closing his eyes briefly as another wave of exhaustion hit him. He only opened them when he felt Eddie grab his hand and was surprised to see him staring at him with tears in his eyes. “Thank you.” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion.

Buck shook his head, lowering his gaze as shame and self-loathing curled up in his chest. “Don’t. Please. I—I lost him, Eddie.” His breath hitched as tears started to drip down his cheeks. “He got caught in the flood and I couldn’t find him for _hours_.” His free hand rubbed protectively up and down Christopher’s back. “I was terrified that I—that I—” his throat closed up, choking on the word, the thought, he couldn’t even bring himself to think, let alone say.

“He’s okay.” Eddie said softly, scooting closer and squeezing Buck’s hand, raising his other one to gently wipe away the tears on Buck’s face. “You saved him. You kept him safe—whatever happened, I know you would do anything for him. You’re both here, safe, alive, and in one piece. That’s all I care about.”

Buck turned his body towards Eddie and pressed his face against his shoulder as quiet sobs shook his body. His head slid down against Eddie’s collarbone when the other man wrapped his arm around Buck’s shoulders, scooting closer to him and holding him tightly as he cried. The weight of the trauma seemed to settle in a little more and, so focused on trying to keep Christopher safe, he was just now realizing how close he almost came to dying—again.

“It was terrifying.” Buck whispered, squeezing his eyes shut as tears continued to slip down his cheeks.

_Where’d all the water go?_

“When the tsunami hit—” his breath hitched and he shivered, remembering the terrifying darkness and coldness of the water. Terrified at how helpless he was, being thrown every which way by the current and trying his best to avoid being hit by pieces of debris being swept away with him.

“Hey, hey, shh…” Eddie murmured soothingly, rubbing his hand up and down Buck’s arm. “It’s okay. It’s over now. You’re safe, Christopher safe, the water’s gone.”

Buck inhaled shakily and leaned heavily against Eddie’s side. He was right. They were safe—both safe and alive and mostly in one piece. He just had to focus on that right now. He knew the rest would fall into place. They just needed time.

He knew with his family at his side they would be able to weather through this together.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope yall enjoy this! may or may not be hoping this is what happens in the next episode. leave a comment and let me know what you thought (and yes to yell at how dare they put buck and christopher through this trauma let my boys be HAPPY)


End file.
